Book Review: Paradigms of Suffering: Bloody Seconds by Greg Dixon
Paradigms of Suffering: Bloody Seconds
Book Review by Sean Chambers
Paradigms of Suffering: Bloody Seconds is a collection of short stories created by Greg Dixon that is definitely not for the squeamish. Dixon seems to take delight in using a pallet of violent language to paint his morbid tales.
Bloody Seconds contains four original stories and one unique vision of Ed Gein’s life. The characters presented in the stories very quickly experience all the raw and unbridled violence Dixon’s mind is capable of creating. An unfaithful wife, a prison inmate, a group of drunken buddies—no one is safe from the macabre that fills each and every story.
In the end, Bloody Seconds is reminiscent of the exploitation films of the sixties and seventies. The stories use ultraviolence and taboo subject matter in place of plot and character development. This double-edged sword makes the stories fun but forgettable. At its short length of only one hundred and fifty pages, though, it’s worth checking out.